- **Uni Abex Alloy Products is a specialist foundry that makes high-performance metal parts designed to survive extreme heat, wear, and corrosion - the kind of components that sit inside a refinery furnace or a steel mill for years without failing. The company was founded in 1972 when its founder brought advanced super-alloy technology to India for the first time, and it has spent the five decades since deepening that expertise through its own in-house research centre. The recurring approach is to identify a critical, hard-to-make component that an industrial giant cannot afford to have break, develop an alloy and a casting process that outperforms the standard, and then supply that part to global original equipment manufacturers - a model that has made it India’s first and a globally recognised name in reformer tubes and centrifugal castings.** # Business segments A single-engine business - a high-endurance alloy castings foundry that supplies critical replacement parts and assemblies to global process industries, with every activity feeding the same furnace. ## 1. Alloy and steel castings: the critical-component foundry for the world’s furnaces and reactors **The company makes customised metal parts from exotic alloys that must withstand years of continuous exposure to temperatures above 1,000°C, corrosive chemicals, or abrasive wear inside the core machinery of refineries, fertiliser plants, and steel mills.** - **Every part is made to a customer’s exact specification** - the company operates on a “produce to print” model, meaning it casts and machines components precisely to the engineering drawings provided by its OEM and process-industry customers, with a strategic shift underway toward offering its own application-engineering solutions. - **Three casting processes under one roof** - the Dharwad plant runs horizontal centrifugal casting (for long tubes up to 6,000 mm), vertical centrifugal casting (for conical parts, including what the company says is the tallest such casting made in India), and static casting (for single-piece components weighing up to 3,000 kilogrammes), so it can serve a wide range of geometries from one facility. - **The product is defined by the punishment it takes** - the portfolio is organised into heat-resistant parts (reformer tubes, radiant coils, furnace rollers), wear-resistant parts (feed tubes, skid buttons), and corrosion-resistant parts (sink rolls, decanter bowls, retorts), each made from a specific stainless-steel or nickel-chrome alloy formulated for that environment. - **The customer base is a concentrated set of heavy industries** - the company supplies the Direct Reduction of Iron (DRI) sector, petrochemical and fertiliser plants (especially for steam methane reforming), refineries, decanter manufacturers, and furnace builders, with exports reaching nine countries including the USA, Germany, and China. - **A new alloy is the latest competitive weapon** - in 2025 the company’s in-house ERD centre developed Thermalloy 64 MR, an alloy designed to extend reformer tube life by over 15% at operating temperatures of 1,050-1,100°C, which it describes as the first alloy of its kind developed by a foundry in India. # Engineering Research and Development **The company’s government-recognised R&D centre in Dharwad is the engine that creates the proprietary alloys and process innovations that differentiate its castings from commodity foundry output.** - **Alloy invention is the core activity** - the ERD team has enhanced the standard 25Cr35Ni alloy with rare-earth and refractory elements for better high-temperature creep performance, developed centrifugal casting techniques for cobalt-based Stellite and nickel-based Hastelloy, and is working to stabilise the 35Cr45Ni alloy for DRI and steam-cracking applications. - **Academic partnerships feed the pipeline** - the ERD centre collaborates with IIT Dharwad and the Indian Institute of Science Bangalore on material-science research, giving it access to advanced metallurgical knowledge beyond its own 92-employee workforce. - **Failure analysis keeps customers’ plants running** - the lab uses an inverted Leica microscope with image analysis to diagnose metallurgical failures, study alloy phase distribution, and identify grain-boundary carbide patterns, which helps customers understand why a part failed and how to prevent it next time. # Group structure and partners **The company is a standalone, promoter-controlled entity within the diversified Neterwala Group, with no subsidiaries or joint ventures, and a board dominated by non-executive directors.** - **Promoter-held and independently run** - the founding family’s holding companies, Unitel Finance & Investments and Chemicals and Ferro Alloys, together own 63.62% of the shares, while day-to-day operations are led by a professional CEO with over 25 years of experience across metals, energy, and high-value manufacturing. - **No complex group structure** - the company has no subsidiaries, associates, or joint ventures, so consolidated financial statements are not applicable; it is a single legal entity with a single operating segment. - **Board oversight with independent weight** - as of March 2025, the board comprised a non-executive chairman (the founder’s son) and seven other non-executive directors, four of whom are independent, providing a majority-independent check on promoter influence.